Although every day is an opportunity to make changes, I love the symbolism of a new year. To me, it feels like a natural opportunity to reflect on those areas of my life that I’d like to change, and make plans for how to achieve the outcomes I want. In this post, I’m sharing how you can plan for success in 2019, and I’ll share my own professional goals so that you can hold me accountable.
Free DIRECT download: Resources to help you plan for success (cheat sheet). (Email subscribers get free access to all the resources in the Free Subscription Library.)
Outline:
- Understand your strengths and weaknesses.
- Identify and write personal goals.
- Find time for what matters most to you.
- My professional goals for 2019.
- The next step is to plan for success.
- Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts.
- Please share your goals or favorite resources.
Understand your strengths and weaknesses
According to Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz, I’m an Obliger. As an Obliger, I excel at meeting external expectations, but at a personal cost. An Obliger will forgo taking action to meet their own goals in order to satisfy other people’s expectations.
This rings true for me. In fact, during my annual review a few weeks ago, I told my supervisor that my instinct is to do whatever it takes to meet the company’s expectations, to the point of burning out. One of the goals we set for me for 2019 is to improve my ability to set boundaries and manage my time so that I can do a good job without burning myself out.
Another great resource to help you gain more insight is Achieve-Goal-Setting-Success.com, which offers a wealth of information and free tools. You can complete a variety of free exercises or quizzes to help you better understand your personality, preferences, and motivations.
Identify and write personal goals
If you’re having trouble identifying and writing SMART goals, then check out Achieve-Goal-Setting-Success.com’s free 56-page life planning workbook that walks you through the process, step-by-step. I printed the workbook and worked through it a couple of years ago and found it to be very helpful. I redo several of the exercises from time to time.
If you’re looking for a quick planning tool, check out this free one from Chris Guillebeau. I happened to catch his interview with Gretchen Rubin on her Happier podcast. I’m using his Excel worksheet to set and monitor my goals for 2019.
Find time for what matters most to you
If you never have enough time to do what you really want, you may want to take another look at how you’re actually spending your time. We generally waste much more time than we realize. We can recapture little pockets of time spent on low-priority activities. Using those pockets of time to complete small steps, we can make significant progress towards our goals.
Capturing small pockets of time gave me big results in 2018
Because I felt like I was working way too many hours, I’d been resisting using my little pockets of time between patients for doing documentation. I knew I was wasting time in between sessions by checking work email, which often led to personal email, and social media. But I think I viewed it as a little break that I was entitled to, since my day was very long and I didn’t take a meal break.
My attitude changed last year when I finally was able to develop an internal locus of control, feeling in charge of how I spent my time. The resistance I was feeling melted away, and I decided to use those pockets of time to work on (and usually complete) documentation before leaving for my next patient.
The results were well worth the effort. When I finish the documentation for a patient during the day, the effort of keeping the session details in the back of my mind evaporates. So I don’t feel as tired by the end of the day. I still find time to keep up with work email during the day, and I keep up with most of my personal notifications as well. And the best part is, when I get home, a large chunk of my documentation is complete (on most days).
I’m ramping it up in 2019
That small change in repurposing those few minutes between sessions resulted in such a big pay-off that I’m motivated to see what else I can do. I’ve decided to start 2019 by keeping track of how I spend my time for two weeks. I’m using the “Simple Time Tracker” app on my Android phone, which is very easy to use and not invasive in terms of permissions.
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get my work done in less time, as well as make real progress towards my other goals, by understanding where my time is going. Once I see where to focus my attention, I’ll try to work out simpler, faster ways of getting the work done.
How to identify your own time wasters
If you don’t have enough time to do all the things, I’d recommend starting with tracking your time. You could use an app, a notebook, a planner, or some other tool. You can track how much time you spend in each task, or you can write down what you’re doing every 15 minutes or every 30 minutes. I don’t think it matters too much, as long as you get usable date.
If you’re interested in seeing how you spend your time, check out these resources:
- Achieve Goal Setting Success’s extensive resources on time management.
- Chris Guillebeau’s blog post on tracking time.
- Laura Vanderkam’s Time Tracking Challenge (with free spreadsheets and guide to managing time).
My professional goals for 2019
As an Obliger, I need external accountability
Gretchen Rubin explains that an Obliger needs external accountability to make lasting changes. So while I’m not entirely comfortable sharing my goals with you (because what if I fail?), I believe that I’ll make better progress this year if I do. Just by reading my blog, you’ll help me stay accountable. Don’t be shy about asking me how I’m doing with my goals, either!
In fact, writing this blog is already helping me. I’ve already put into practice more from last year’s ASHA Convention than I have any previous convention, simply because I was excited to share what I learned with you.
I’m terrible at setting reasonable goals for myself
I’m going to start by telling you that while I’m pretty good at writing goals for my patients, I’m terrible at writing goals for myself. I consistently underestimate how long it will take me to do something, which means I consistently overestimate how much I can get done in any period of time. You should see my To Do lists for my days off.
In fact, this was my To Do list for my three-day weekend beginning November 2, 2018. My husband was away for the weekend, so I thought I’d get caught up on everything.
- Pay the bills.
- Do the laundry.
- Grocery shop.
- Backup my laptop.
- Prepare for therapy next week.
- Write up the AAC evaluation.
- Finish three posts for my blog.
- Write the next newsletter.
- Create portals for my website (one for healthcare professionals, one for everyone else).
- Finally start tracking the metrics for my website.
- Figure out Mailchimp tags and improve the sign-up process.
- Put in my DoTerra order (I love essential oils).
- Figure out my itinerary for the ASHA convention.
- Clean the attic.
- Go climbing on Sunday.
Does that even sound reasonable to you? I mean, cleaning the attic takes two full days. I know this, because that’s how long it took me a few years ago. And still, it was on my list. Even now, two months later, a number of those tasks still aren’t done. (I never touched the attic!)
I get overwhelmed by all the things I want to do and all the things I feel I should do, because I’m such a poor planner. I’m looking to change this in 2019!
My goals for my home healthcare job
So now that you know I’m terrible at setting reasonable goals for myself, here are my work-related goals. I will:
- Track how I spend my time for two weeks and identify three specific tasks that could be completed more efficiently by 1/19/19.
- Try out one new assessment or intervention strategy or tool every month in 2019 in order to continually improve my clinical skills.
- Provide evidence-based tools to nursing and physical therapy to improve reporting of language and cognition abilities at Start of Care (SOC) by 10/31/19.
- Promote LSVT LOUD or other programs by providing at least two presentations to the community by 10/31/19.
My goals for Eat, Speak, & Think
And my goals for my website. I will:
- Improve reader’s ability to find information on my website by creating portals and landing pages designed for healthcare professionals and the general public by 2/24/19.
- Identify important metrics and begin tracking them regularly by 3/3/19.
- Write and publish an extensive guide or resource for sale by 6/2/19.
- Create and publish a video on YouTube in order to share information in a different format by 8/4/19.
- Earn $200 from my writing in order to offset some of the costs associated with Eat, Speak, & Think by 12/31/19.
In addition to these goals, I also want to start a podcast and write a full-length book. But in an effort to not overwhelm myself, I’m going to put those on the back-burner for now.
The next step is to plan for success
Now that I have my goals, the next step is to make a plan to achieve each one. As the famous saying goes, “A goal without a plan is just a wish” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery). This is another area I struggle with. I know the theory:
- Break each goal down into discrete steps.
- Assign each step to a particular week.
- Each week, review next week’s assigned steps and schedule each one.
I think the biggest reason I struggle with this is the problem I discussed above: I’m terrible at judging how long something will take to do. So I’m hoping that keeping a time journal for the next two weeks will help me.
Planning gives you the freedom to do what you want
Some people feel that having a scheduled plan is constraining, but I view it as a tool that allows me to do the things that I want. Sometimes, I actually do manage to put together a reasonable and effective plan, and I’ve always achieved more in less time. I find it very motivating to accomplish a lot and still have time for fun or relaxation.
My plan is simply a tool that I can change at any moment. Having a reasonable plan offers so much flexibility, because it’s easy to see how you can change things around and still achieve what you want to achieve. I just need to improve my ability to set reasonable expectations!
Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts
- 3 ways a professional mindset changed my life in 2018.
- 7 tips to benefit your home health patients and minimize your workload.
- 5 ways I improved work-life balance as a home health SLP.
Share your goals or favorite resources
I’m happier today than I was a year ago, and I believe it’s the result of a number of changes I made in my personal and professional life in 2018. All those changes boil down to improving my sense of control over my own life. I’m looking forward to making good progress towards my dreams and goals in 2019.
I hope that this post has given you some ideas and resources that you can use to plan for success, if you’re not satisfied with how things are currently. Of course, there are tons of goal planning and productivity tools out there. Please share your goals or your favorite resources in the comments.
Free DIRECT download: Resources to help you plan for success (cheat sheet). (Email subscribers get free access to all the resources in the Free Subscription Library.)
Featured image by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
Lisa earned her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Maryland, College Park and her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, San Diego.
She participated in research studies with the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the University of Maryland in the areas of aphasia, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy, and fluency disorders.
Lisa has been working as a medical speech-language pathologist since 2008. She has a strong passion for evidence-based assessment and therapy, having earned five ASHA Awards for Professional Participation in Continuing Education.
She launched EatSpeakThink.com in June 2018 to help other clinicians be more successful working in home health, as well as to provide strategies and resources to people living with problems eating, speaking, or thinking.
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